Still heading South

We are still heading south juggling from Chile to Argentina. We are now in Puerto Natales about 600 Kilometers from Ushuaia. The end of the Road. We spend almost all day riding with few stops along the way to admire the fantastic scenery in front of our eyes. We follow the Carretera Austral until the little tiny village of Ibanez on the Lake Buenos Aires. From there we cut across into Argentina heading to another little town named Perito Moreno.  Once again the border crossing we choose is so small that they are not connected to the national system of immigration with a computer so they let us pass with many different pieces of documents that we will have to produce once we leave Argentina to return back into Chile later in our trip.

Our destination is El Calafate where we plan to see the Perito Moreno glacier. We are still quite far from it but we try to push as much as we can, taking advantage of the late day light that is common this time of the year in this part of the world.

We plan to at least make it to Gobernador Gregores but due to the heavy head winds are forced to camp for the night in the middle of nowhere behind a Police station. We are not the only one that night that have to stop for the famous Patagonian winds. The backyard of the Police station quickly becomes an improvised camping grounds. Many people, even with cars decide to stop. The Patagonian winds can easily reach 100 Kilometers an hour making the handling of a motorcycle very dangerous.

The following day we are determined to get to El Calafate. I was there in 1996 when I made my first trip to Argentina. The town is completelty changed. In 1996 there was maybe 5000 people living there. Now there are more than 20000. The reason is that the clacier Perito Moreno is just 70 Kilometers away and it has become a touristic destination for many visitors. The glacier Perito Moreno is magnificent and definitly worthwhile visiting if you are in the region. Before the visit to the Perito Moreno we decide to have our first real  “asado” to recuperate all that lost energy against the Patagonian winds.